Vettel's win an inspiration: Mallya

Vettel's win in the Italian GP would boost independent teams and Vijay Mallya wants his Force India drivers to take a leaf out of the rookie's book.

Written by Press Trust of India

Read Time: 2 mins

Monza, Italy:

Sebastian Vettel's historic win in the Italian Grand Prix would boost independent teams and Vijay Mallya wants his Force India drivers to take a leaf out of the rookie German's book.

"I must extend my congratulations to Toro Rosso and Sebastian Vettel for a marvellous first victory, and to our engine partner Ferrari for their first win with a customer engine," Mallya said after the Italian Grand Prix.

"It is very satisfying to see an independent team winning and this is a source of inspiration for us," said the Force India boss.

Force India had a forgettable outing here with Giancarlo Fisichella failing to make the most of his 12th place on the starting grid and Adrian Sutil finishing a lowly 19th. Mallya said they could not read the race well.

"We would have liked to convert the strong qualifying into something more, but as with all other teams in the field, the tricky conditions were difficult to read and we could not move up.

"What we have learnt however is that we are competitive in full wet conditions, which could be very useful in the next race in Singapore, which we need to focus on now," he said.

Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne also did not hide his disappointment and said, "Giancarlo had a good fight in the first few laps with the quicker cars behind him but unfortunately when Coulthard passed him he lost his front wing on the back straight.

"It was also a difficult race for Adrian. He had some tyre issues later in the race, so we took a gamble to put him on the slicks, which didn't pay off," he rued.

"We had had a good performance here in practice and qualifying so it was a very disappointing end to the weekend," Gascoyne added.